This dispute concerns a contract for the sale of real property. Believing the seller was impairing the buyer’s ability to close on time in order to sell the property under contract to someone else, the buyer filed this action to enjoin the seller from transferring the property to another and to require the seller to provide documentation necessary to close. The buyer also asserted claims for specific performance of the contract, breach of contract, and conspiracy against the seller, as well as claims for tortious interference with the contract and conspiracy against another defendant.

We granted permission to appeal to determine whether article I, section 21 of the Tennessee Constitution requires a government to compensate a property owner for a regulatory taking of private property. We hold that article I, section 21 encompasses regulatory takings in the same manner as the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

On Aug. 13, Sharon Elizabeth England was temporarily suspended from the practice of law for failing to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility regarding a complaint of misconduct. View the BPR notice.

New Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Jeff Bivins threw his support behind Amendment 2 during remarks before the 74th annual Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation Presidents Conference yesterday in Franklin. The amendment to the Tennessee Constitution calls for the governor to appoint Tennessee appellate court judges, subject to legislative confirmation, and followed by retention elections. The question is one of four proposed amendments before voters statewide on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. “The primary reason for Amendment 2 is to bring stability, conclusion and finality to the process,” said Bivins. The Tennessean has more.

The FBI and Justice Department are conducting a full, independent civil rights investigation into the death of an unarmed black teenager shot by police in Missouri, Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday. Protests have followed the incident, some of them violent and involving clashes between demonstrators and police in riot gear. Representatives from the Justice Department's Community Relations Service, which works to mediate race disputes, has been sent to Missouri. WRCB has the story.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clarified yesterday that same-sex couples in Virginia may get married beginning next Thursday at 8 a.m. unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes and puts a hold on the ruling, TriCities reports. The court on Wednesday denied a motion by one of the defendants in a federal case seeking to overturn Virginia's same-sex marriage ban to stay its recent ruling that found the ban unconstitutional. Legal experts believe that the Supreme Court will grant an appeal by the defendant, Michele B. McQuigg, circuit court clerk in Prince William County, to stay the ruling until it resolves the issue of same-sex marriage for all states.

Memphis-based shipper FedEx Corp. is facing a new charge of conspiring to launder money in the case involving shipments of drugs for illegal pharmacies. The company was charged today with knowingly accepting payment related to shipments of rogue Internet-based pharmacies, bringing the total number of charges up to 16. The Memphis Business Journal has more.

In a memo filed last night, attorneys for the state asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed against TennCare officials accusing them of creating months-long delays for thousands of Tennesseans trying to apply for Medicaid. Attorneys argued that the long delays are not in their hands, but are the fault of the federal government. “In short,” state attorneys wrote, “Plaintiffs allege an injury that results directly from the actions or inactions of the [federally-facilitated marketplace].” The initial lawsuit was filed last month by three legal advocacy groups — the Tennessee Justice Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Health Law Program — on behalf of 11 people who have waited two and three times the federal limit to learn whether they will be receive Medicaid coverage. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has more.

The UT student newspaper takes a look at how Tennessee has improved action against underage sex trafficking in a Daily Beacon article published today. The Protected Innocence Challenge, a comprehensive study which grades states on its laws to respond to domestic minors forced to engage in sex trafficking, graded Tennessee with a 93.5, or A, for human trafficking in 2013, up from its score of 79.5 in 2012 and 73 in 2011. Two notable changes behind the state's improved score are the amending of the patronizing prostitution law which significantly increased the penalty for buying sex with a minor and a new law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to update its website upon a missing child's recovery.